The Nineteenth Byte

also, did you know that all parabolas are translated scaled versions of y=x²? (note that scaling has to be uniform, not stretching in a single direction)

Redwolf Programs

I did!

Makonede

12:54 AM

i knew that, and more generally, all parabolas are translated scaled versions of all other parabolas

Lyxal

Oh my goodness light mode SE chat is blinding

Redwolf Programs

Is there a dark mode?

user

@Neil What's that character? Phi?

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms I use a dark mode extension

it injects dark into every page

user

I've been using light mode for everything since forever and I'm fine.

@Lyxal Is it any good?

Lyxal

1:01 AM

@user very

darkreader.org

user

Normally, I just turn the brightness down to the lowest possible setting, unless the website is already very dark.

Redwolf Programs

document.body.style.opacity = 0;
document.body.style.backgroundColor = "#000000";

user

@Lyxal I actually tried that in Chrome, but it was problematic for some pages.

Redwolf Programs

Easy dark mode :p

Lyxal

@user yeah, some pages are special. But it mostly works

user

1:03 AM

Even better dark mode: turn off your laptop.

Lyxal

@user I can do better: rip the screen off so no data can be transferred

user

@Lyxal ~~Even better, rip out your eyes.~~

Redwolf Programs

Well I was going to say a blindfold but...

Lyxal

@user Unbeatable: ~~don't be born at all~~

Makonede

@Lyxal It is actually beatable ~~prevent the big bang~~

3

user

1:05 AM

@Lyxal I wish I could just travel back in time and give my parents "The Talk."

Makonede

damnit how does markdown work here

Lyxal

@Makonede dah you beat me

@Makonede ~~like this~~

user

@Makonede It don't.

@Makonede Do you use discord?

Lyxal

~~you strike through like this~~

Lyxal

~~it's really easy~~

Makonede

1:06 AM

ok thx

wow thats so weird

user

AFAIK TopAnswers lets you use Markdown in their chat.

Makonede

i'm used to either <s>text</s> or ~~text~~

but not \-\-\-text\-\-\-

oh great and escaping doesnt work either

@user yes

that's why i'm used to ~~text~~

user

I wish everyone would just use normal MD (and that MD would support more stuff, like strikethroughs)

Redwolf Programs

Don't you love when you write a SEDE query and reload and it reverts to the first revision...

user

CMQ: What's a good MD extension?

Lyxal

1:08 AM

I found this markdown tutorial for SE chat

2

user

@Lyxal btly.xyz. Yup, this totally doesn't redirect to You-Know-What.

Lyxal

@user do you?

Makonede

@Lyxal imagine trying

to do the ricc

Lyxal

I'm a bit out of practice okay

user

@Lyxal Yup, that ~~ was one thing I tried before someone told me about ---

@Lyxal Just read the tips you gave me.

Makonede

1:11 AM

@Lyxal just got it. 10/10 already

Lyxal

@Makonede there are some sites where I just can't switch back to light

Redwolf Programs

Unrelated, This SEDE query shows the questions with the highest number of votes per thousand views

Makonede

@Lyxal like what?

Lyxal

here

and main

Makonede

seems to work fine for me

Lyxal

1:13 AM

as in it doesn't feel right

Makonede

idk maybe its different for you

by the way i felt you were gonna attempt a second rickroll when i asked that

Lyxal

No I can change the extension, but I get too used to dark mode

Makonede

oh

i see

Redwolf Programs

Wow I made a challenge so forgetable I forgot about it

Shortest pristine truth machine

caird coinheringaahing

@Neil In degrees or radians?

Makonede

1:16 AM

radians

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms I won that one with triviality

Makonede

@user next one's even larger: 37362253

grows pretty fast

in fact the 16th number (including 1) that satisfies that is 4285797387061825747646013

that's more than 4 septillion

Redwolf Programs

How do you input something from the user in a SEDE query?

caird coinheringaahing

Isn't it something like ##input##?

Redwolf Programs

Oh, it worked

Thanks!

caird coinheringaahing

1:21 AM

Behold the extent of my SQL knowledge! :P

Redwolf Programs

CMQ: What's your best and worst challenge according to this query?

(Score per 1k views)

caird coinheringaahing

@RedwolfPrograms How're the results sorted?

Redwolf Programs

Best is at the top

Lyxal

best and worst

worst has more votes than best

irony

caird coinheringaahing

Best, Worst (that isn't closed)

Neil

1:25 AM

@user right, golden ratio

caird coinheringaahing

:57253521 How so?

Lyxal

I can't read

that's how

Redwolf Programs

I made a really cool tool a few days ago, you enter a regex and it returns the average score, close percentage, etc. of questions whose body or tags match it

Lyxal

When the impostor is sus! 😳

New Main Posts

0

Q: Reconstruct an integer from its prime exponents

All integers \$n > 0\$ can be expressed in the form $$n = \prod_{\text{prime } p} p^e = 2^{e_2} 3^{e_3} 5^{e_5} 7^{e_7} \cdots$$ This form is also known as it's prime factorisation or prime decomposition, and each integer has a unique prime factorisation. As the bases are fixed, it is possible to...

Neil

1:51 AM

one final confusing identity: ln(2+2)=2ln2

Redwolf Programs

2:44 AM

@Neil That's hardly confusing, log_n(x ^ y) = ylog_n(x) and 2 + 2 = 2 ^ 2

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms can you explain that last one to me

Redwolf Programs

3:58 AM

@Lyxal 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 ^ 2 = 4...

Or did you mean ylog_n(x)

That's supposed to be y * log_n(x)

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms yes that one

It looks very confusing

@RedwolfPrograms that's easily understandable in comparison

Redwolf Programs

Oh, ^ is used sometimes for exponentiation

So 2 ^ 2 is 2²

Lyxal

Exponentiation you say.

That sounds like some very fancy math

\s

Redwolf Programs

How much of this conversation have I not been getting a joke :p

Now I feel stupid :p

Lyxal

all of it

Redwolf Programs

4:08 AM

:/

Lyxal

why do you think I don't know logs and basic math?

you obviously believed that i didn't know

Redwolf Programs

I thought I'd written it unclearly or there was some sort of advanced ylog_n function I didn't know about :p

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms me clarifying the exponentiation message didn't make it clear?

Redwolf Programs

Plus ^ being used for bitwise xor in C-like languages

I kind of figured you were joking when it came to the exponentiation part but then it'd be worse if you weren't

Anyway I'm going to go back to making performance optimizations to a program that will sit on my hard drive for ten years then get forgotten and deleted by mistake

Lyxal

Sure

I've updated my weekly meme bios

for chat and codegolf

new verbose memes

Redwolf Programs

4:14 AM

> Non-city car transport constructs

Wait never mind

Wait you put a different verbose meme on your CGCC profile? I've been missing out!!!

Lyxal

@RedwolfPrograms that's right

Redwolf Programs

I just realized I didn't get any work done on Ash today :/

Lyxal

you could get some work in now

Redwolf Programs

I will soon, have to go to some things first

Lyxal

5:36 AM

cairds latest challenge has a score of 6 and 9 answers

Nice

pxeger

7:06 AM

grow up

2

Razetime

7:26 AM

@pxeger Lyxal is the oldest person in here

Lyxal

@Razetime that's you isn't it?

I thought you were 5 years older than me

Razetime

naw

(funnily enough, pxeger is much older than both of us)

Lyxal

7:52 AM

@Razetime wait, y'aint 23?

New Main Posts

8:26 AM

0

Q: Draw four colorful quarter circles

The challenge is to reproduce an image close to this one in your favorite language: Your image must be at least 400 by 400 pixels. The fill colors don't need to be the same as in the image but they must be different from each other. Your image must have four quarter circles aligned as in the im...

code-golf graphical-output

Razetime

10:20 AM

@Lyxal no not at all

Lyxal

Hmm

There is one 23 year old among us

@pxeger how 'bout I don't

Lyxal

11:14 AM

I made 3 more funny incorrect quotes using the generator from yesterday lol

user202729

11:28 AM

What!?

18

Q: Topologically distinct ways of dissecting a square into rectangles

I was asked by OEIS contributor Andrew Howroyd to post a Code Golf Challenge to extend OEIS sequence A049021. Would be super great to get a couple more terms for [...] A049021. Kind of thing [...] team golf would excel at. As I found out the hard way with the help of user202729, the definition ...

sequence combinatorics fastest-code set-partitions topology

I mean, why would op close vote?

Side note: Is there any way to view all recent challenges (including deleted ones)? chat.stackexchange.com/search?q=Q&user=-363&room=240 ?

Huh, there's codegolf.stackexchange.com/… too.

I think there have been some unreasonable close-as-unclear recently however. (not that there wasn't previously. l4m2's challenges used to get some)

user202729

11:58 AM

TODO write a meta post...

(@cairdcoinheringaahing What's unclear with the topo challenge?

Just going to post my idea for the square root multiplies challenge here. Doesn't involve continued fraction however.

#!/bin/python

import random, math, sys, itertools

from gmpy import mpz as Z


def f(n):
	from math import isqrt
	k = Z(2)
	while k.sqrt()**2==k or ((n + 1)**2*k).sqrt()//k+1 - (n**2*k).sqrt()//k < 2:
		k += 1
	return k

if 0: # naive
	best=0
	for n in range(1, 10**9):
		fn=f(n)
		if fn>best:
			best=fn
			print(n, f(n))

	raise 1

if 0:
	import decimal
	from decimal import Decimal
	decimal.DefaultContext.prec=10000

from typing import List, Tuple, Dict, Optional


values: List[Z]=[
		#Z(1)<<i for i in range(2000)

No explanation.

Not as efficient as I've expected, but a 100x (or even 10x) speed up is okay.

deleted

caird coinheringaahing

12:20 PM

Sorry, meant to link to a specific comment

Voting to close because of the edit "as user 202729 pointed out..." It looks to me that to get from one to the other you have to slide through the point where the Northwest rectangle forms a 4-way corner with the rectangles East, South and Southeast of it. Also, if these two are equivalent, why aren't the 5th and 2nd examples for n=4 equivalent? Extend the west rectangle till it fills the whole west side, then rotate 90 deg. I think this needs clearer definition. — Level River St 2 days ago

Specifically the “Also, if these two are equivalent, why aren't the 5th and 2nd examples for n=4 equivalent?”

New Main Posts

1:05 PM

1

Q: Semidivisibility

NOTE: Some terminology used in this challenge is fake. For two integers n and k both greater than or equal to 2 with n > k (strictly), n is semidivisible by k if any only if n/k = r/10 for some integer r. However, n may not be divisible by k. Put more simply, the base 10 representation of n/k has...

code-golf math division

user202729

3:59 PM

@cairdcoinheringaahing I think I did explain that one to that user carefully, didn't I?

... related to the issue...

If everyone vote to close the challenge when they miscalculate something, all challenges on the site would be closed in no time.

... with enough users.

rak1507

the person I have been secretly comparing my rep to has overtaken me :(

Redwolf Programs

Congrats on 2k though!

rak1507

lol thanks

Redwolf Programs

Do we still need the Best Of voting featured?

pxeger

4:33 PM

well there's nothing better to feature I guess

caird coinheringaahing

4:50 PM

@RedwolfPrograms It isn't featured though: featured

Or at least it doesn't have the tag anymore

But still shows up in the featured stuff

pxeger

hmm

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 In my mind, no, I still don't understand the challenge, even after reading your explanation (which is why I still CV'ed). It may be that I don;t actually understand the challenge at all, rather than "I think I understand this, but there's a couple of unclear points", which is what I believe now. Because it's unclear whether its unclear or not, in my mind, that makes it unclear

user202729

It remains hard to find people to reopen that thing.

@cairdcoinheringaahing Let's say...

What's the original purpose of the unclear close vote?

There's no purpose, we just import it from stack overflow.

So we have been using it to close challenges that are unclear.

Still typing.

It's justified as a tool to avoid people posting answers that end up being invalid.

I agree with that point.

On the other hand, in this case the challenge uses math concepts that there are some/most/I don't know people who can't understand.

It can be said that "if someone post an answer, they won't be able to check if the answer is valid"...

But is it a better idea in this case to just leave the challenge there and let (only) those who understand what it's about to participate?

I know this is like the "if you don't want to help then go away" attitude on Stack Overflow but...

This site is not for the same purpose as Stack Overflow. It's for people to have fun.

==eof

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 So, here's the contentious point IMO: "Does every challenge have to be 100% accessible to all to avoid being labelled as 'unclear'?" My answer to that is no, and I think we agree on that point. However, for this challenge, the issue is that I think that I do understand the mathematical concepts behind it. Perhaps not as well as all, or even most, but I think I do have a grasp on the concepts. Even with my knowledge of the challenge, I think there are some areas that need (cont)

(cont) clarity (namely what was brought up in Level's comment). Now the issue is, I'm not fully sure if these bits are unclear to me because either: (1: I actually don't understand as much as I thought I did) or (2: the challenge is actually unclear in those areas). Because of this, I cast a VTC as unclear, assuming I do actually know what I think I know (the OP VTCing as well helped me make this assumption). If, however, people disagree with me and VTRO and RO the question, I really don't mind

Just my 2 cents on the matter

This is probably one of the few questions where I can't leave a comment explaining how I think the challenge can be fixed, because I'm not 100% certain I actually understand it enough to weigh in that significantly, and I'm happy to leave the discussions to those who are 100% certain on it

user202729

5:08 PM

I can show the explicit mapping on some example if it helps, but it's hard to explain.

Piecewise function and stuff.

I can show the interior of which rectangle is mapped to which without too much difficulty though.

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 I'd suggest saving both your time and mine; I no longer care what happens with that challenge, so I'm very unlikely to cast a reopen vote, simply because I no longer have the motivation to fully clarify it for myself

user202729

My main issue is rather I think it isn't "fair" to close vote challenges like that.

caird coinheringaahing

Asking Peter why he cast a VTC might be a good start to getting it reopened - it's rare that an OP VTCs their own question, and even rarer to have that VTC not be a dupe close

user202729

Some people call it unfriendly, but with all the things the company has been doing, it's best to avoid that term (?)

I'll say the same thing about the recent tips question. After op explained the 200x200 canvas size, it still get closed in the reopen queue (and roomba'ed now)

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 That's understandable, and I do agree that we close too many questions far too quickly. But, as I said, I'm basically ambivalent to that specific challenge, mainly due to the complexity and my lack of confidence in the subject matter

user202729

5:12 PM

Writing a meta post is time-consuming.

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 Which tips post?

user202729

@cairdcoinheringaahing codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/219208/…

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 That could do with being made more explicit that the OP is asking for tips on how to golf their code. RN it reads as a Python exclusive code golf challenge, and if it is that, it's far too underspecified

user202729

Bubbler edited in the tips tag in and I said that in the comment.

(the comments does show up in the reopen queue, right? No? I can't remember.)

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 I think so

@user202729 Yeah, but the question itself doesn't look like a tips question, it looks like the questions from 2011 along the lines of "Do X. This is my attempt btw [code-golf] [python] etc."

user202729

5:17 PM

> For questions asking for tips on golfing in a specific language, doing well in certain challenge tag, or improving a particular piece of code.

What's wrong?

caird coinheringaahing

The core of the question isn't bad, but the text doesn't read as tips on first reading

user202729

... Not sure about that point. I guess I automatically interpreted it as [tips] because of that tag.

caird coinheringaahing

The OP has edited one thing in since first posted, and that doesn't make it look any more like a tips question. It should explicitly say in the question: "I'm doing X. Here are the specific specs that must be followed (Y, Z, etc.). My attempt so far is P. How can I shorten it?"

Even the title suggests it's more a code-golf challenge than a tips page: "What is the shortest possible program to make a checkerboard in python using Tkinter?"

user202729

That's an okay point to consider, but nobody raised that in the comments and people could have edited it in themselves.

caird coinheringaahing

@user202729 Yeah, that's a problem. I do try to do that when I can, but sometimes I forget/can't (the app is awful for comments)/expect someone else to do it because I've already done it to 10 other questions that day

user202729

5:24 PM

We... don't get 10 questions a day, right?

caird coinheringaahing

We typically get between 4 and 6, but 10 in a day isn't particularly unusual

Actually, I don't believe that accounts for deleted questions, so we probably get closer to 5 to 7 a day

New Main Posts

5:44 PM

0

Q: Tips for restricted source in Powershell

Adapted from Tips for restricted source in Python Just like code-golf, restricted-source pushes one to exploit quirks and hidden features of the Powershell language. Now, We already have a place to collect all these tips for code-golf, those for restricted-source remain transmitted by word of m...

restricted-source tips powershell

Anush

7:33 PM

it's a tough crown on main. I really thought my question was good

rak1507

what was it?

Anush

if only the same people who close your question would comment on the sandbox

1

A: Sandbox for Proposed Challenges

Draw four colorful quarter circles The challenge is to reproduce this image in your favorite language: Your image must be at least 400 by 400 pixels. The fill colors don't need to be the same as in the image but they must be different from each other. Your image must have four quarter circles a...

@rak1507 ^^

rak1507

thanks

Anush

any comments to help it not be closed next time gratefully received

caird coinheringaahing

7:55 PM

@Anush Leave it in the Sandbox long enough to get proper feedback, and make sure that no one can see anything else that needs improvement or fixing

Anush

8:05 PM

@cairdcoinheringaahing thanks. It's frustrating because the moment I posted it people had very strong opinions but I am not sure they will ever comment on the sandboxed version

how can I grep for lines that start with either a capital or lower case letter and everything else is a lower case letter?

New Main Posts

0

Q: Lists of power!

Generate the following list of lists. [[0], [1], [2, 4, 8, 6], [3, 9, 7, 1], [4, 6], [5], [6], [7, 9, 3, 1], [8, 4, 2, 6], [9, 1]] This is code-golf, so shortest answer (as measured in bytes) wins.

code-golf kolmogorov-complexity

Anush

any regex people?

rak1507

@Anush ^[A-Za-z][a-z]*$

Anush

@rak1507 thanks!

caird coinheringaahing

9:17 PM

Oh, I can see a whole set of questions like this one coming for each language... — R. Martinho Fernandes Jan 28 '11 at 4:26

“Tips for restricted source in Unary”

rak1507

tips for a niche thing in a niche language...

Unrelated String

the joke is that Unary, at least on paper, restricts programs to contain only 0s

rak1507

yeah, I know, I was commenting on the powershell post

Unrelated String

but if you have more of a Lenguagey implementation then, well, it's basically Lenguage

ah

Lyxal

9:40 PM

What's with the mobile site redesign?

rak1507

9:53 PM

is there an easy way to get reputation history of a user?

(nvm: I guess the rep tab will do)

rak1507

10:10 PM

wait, if you post something that gets upvoted and then downvoted, even though the score is 0, you get a net +8 rep?

caird coinheringaahing

10:32 PM

@rak1507 If you want a full day-by-day break down of your rep, head to codegolf.stackexchange.com/reputation

rak1507

wow thanks that's exactly what I want

caird coinheringaahing

@rak1507 Yep, SE likes to encourage questions

rak1507

that's insane

caird coinheringaahing

@rak1507 Keep in mind it only works for the user who’s logged in, not for any user you want

rak1507

@cairdcoinheringaahing yeah well I only wanted it for myself anyway so that's fine

so if an answer gets 1 upvote and 4 downvotes, ends up net -3, the user still gets net +2 rep?

caird coinheringaahing

10:35 PM

@rak1507 Yep

rak1507

lol

that's ridiculous

caird coinheringaahing

But users with 20k+ rep can VTD answers at -3, and a lot of us like to use that power :)

rak1507

but even 2+ 2-, that means on the whole the answer isn't good, score of 0, but the user still gets rewarded for that answer with 16 rep

seems like a weird system

caird coinheringaahing

TBF I haven’t seen many posts that are split that wildly, except for voter fraud examples

rak1507

is there a way to see how many upvotes/downvotes an answer has or is that a thing you get at x rep

caird coinheringaahing

10:40 PM

8

A: Newer users can't view vote counts, therefore cannot view current site consensus

Converting my deleted comment into an answer for more visibility While this is a popular idea (and something I personally support), changing this isn't going to happen, but there is an easy way around it. This is actually a common idea over on Mother Meta (see here from 2010 or here from 2009). H...

@rak1507 1k rep, but ^ has a workaround

rak1507

oh, I have more than 1k, so how do you do it?

caird coinheringaahing

10:56 PM

155

Q: "View Vote totals" without 1000 rep

Screenshot About The vote counts are a great tool to determine whether an answer is disputed or not. Unfortunately, not many of us have enough time to join all Stack Exchange websites and get 1000 reputation. This script unlocks the "View Vote counts" feature for those who are not logge...

script chrome-extensions greasemonkey bookmarklet

rak1507

oh, thanks

Transcript for